Nov 22, 2005

(Toledo, OH) Conventional wisdom held that 2005 would be a year in which the Lucas County Republican Party would get crushed by Democrats; after all, this was the year of Coingate and possible campaign finance violations by local Republicans, as well as the year in which Governor Bob Taft was convicted on misdemeanor ethics charges.

Fortunately for local Republicans, the conventional wisdom could not have been more wrong.

Republicans picked up a seat in Toledo City Council, swept the trustee race in Sylvania Township, and also gained a council seat in the suburb of Oregon.

In addition, Republican judicial candidates won three seats in Toledo Municipal Court, bringing their total to five of the seven positions.

“The quality of the candidates helped a great deal,” she said. “We had some stellar people running for office, and you can’t help but win a few races when you have good people on the ballot.”

Thurber considered the elections in Swanton Township and Maumee to also have been significant.

“Jim Irman, a Republican, replaced a Democratic incumbent,” she said. “We also took three of four seats on the Maumee city council.”

Outgoing interim chair Doug Haynam believes that the party’s volunteers were the key to its achievements on November 8.

“I would love to take all the credit, but the fact remains that it was the phone bank workers and grassroots activists that made the difference,” he said. “The party’s volunteers believe in what we are doing, and they are the reason we were so successful.”

Somewhat overlooked in the local electoral results was the fate of Issues 2-5, according to Haynam.

“The defeat of these ballot initiatives was a big win for the state party,” he said. “But people forget that Lucas County voters soundly voted down these proposed amendments, which is remarkable considering the large number of registered Democrats in the county.”

Another reason for Republican victories, according to Haynam, was the party’s message.

“We focused on the issues, while our opponents focused on people,” he said, obliquely referring to the some of the political scandals. “Voters simply listened to our candidates talk about the issues, and did not get sidetracked by attempts to paint all Republicans as corrupt.”

Toledo city council representative Frank Szollosi, a Democrat, saw an additional reason for GOP gains in the county elections.

“The split in the local Democratic Party no doubt contributed to their wins,” he said. “We spent a lot of time, money, and energy fighting each other, instead of focusing on the Republicans.”

Haynam was optimistic that the 2005 results could translate into momentum for future elections.

“We have a lot of work to do as Republicans to get our ticket ready for the 2006 elections,” he said. “It appears that we are going to have a vigorous primary, as there are three strong gubernatorial candidates, and none of them appear to be backing down.”

Haynam believes that all three announced Republicans would make excellent choices for the top of the GOP ticket.

“Many of the local leadership certainly support Betty Montgomery, as we consider anyone from Wood County to be one of our own,” he said. “However, in talking with people at the grassroots level, there is a lot of support for Ken Blackwell, and, despite Marc Dann’s claims to the contrary, Jim Petro has done a terrific job as state auditor.”

Haynam credits the continued successes of the state GOP to state chairman Bob Bennett.

“We truly do have a master at the helm in Bob Bennett,” he said. “He has managed the party well and provided it with real vision.”

There was one election that was of paramount importance to Haynam.

“Without a doubt, I was most concerned with the Sylvania school board election,” he said of what might be considered by most pundits to be a lesser race. “My wife ran for a seat, and you better believe that I was sweating until those results came in.”

This article of mine appears in this week's Toledo Free Press, a terrific weekly paper.

The lack of strong Republican candidates, especially at the state and local level, has been a problem for decades.

The Democratic infighting, may well have played a part in encouraging more well qualified Republicans to run.

It's nice to see some new faces instead of the same old, same old running things forever.

Things run better with more of a balance between the two dominant parties, but I would prefer a no party system in the future. The source of most of the problems and gridlock we are experiencing is because of the parties.

We would be better served by all candidates running on their ideas and records rather than towing “the party line.”

I believe that the time is rapidly approaching when intelligent thinking people will call for abolishing the party system.

In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory messages on the internet, such as on online discussion forums, to disrupt discussion or to upset its participants. The word, or its derivative, "trolling", is also used to describe such messages or the act of posting them.

One might make the case that your comment would be trolling, since you appear a bit giddy over Bob's change in status.

The word you might be searching for would be "pimping," but I am not sure it applies in this case.

Blog "pimping" (or article "pimping," or radio show "pimping") would be shamelessly plugging your own material when there is no related connection.

Blog pimping is one slimy step above spamming, in which the poster does not even make the pretense of engaging in conversation in an effort to promote a site.

Bob's article dovetails nicely with the subject matter, so I would not consider it "pimping," either. Just another post from a interested reader.

Finally, while I disagree with Bob on a number of issues, I do not like to see people jumping for joy over his removal as morning show host, and for several reasons:

1. Employment changes are a major life stressor, and all of us face them at one time or another. I would no more clap in this situation than I would anyone else's job change.

2. Bob is still employed by WSPD, just signed a deal with FOX-36, and continues to write for TFP, so he is hardly at the beggar level, as liberal dem implied.

3. Radio is a funny business, and there are plenty of people booted from one station or slot who return, Douglas MacArthur-like, to the place they once left.